Power BI Enhancements You Need to Know - Part 6: Power BI Desktop Developer Mode

[anmolmalviya05]

Welcome to Part 6 of our “Power BI Enhancements You Need to Know” series! Today, we’re diving into a revolutionary feature: Developer Mode in Power BI Desktop. This capability transforms your workflow, making report development more collaborative, agile, and code-centric. Let’s explore!

What is Developer Mode?

Developer Mode (now in public preview) unlocks a Power BI Project (.PBIP) format, decomposing your PBIX files into:

• Separate folder structures for dataset and report artifacts stored as plain text files
• Easier version control via Git, enhanced collaboration, and CI/CD pipelines.
• You can also utilize powerful Text Editor support (like VS Code) and programmatic editing using JSON schemas for advanced customization.

Why It Matters

• Source Control: Track every change line-by-line, revert easily, manage branches and collaborate seamlessly.
• CI/CD Ready: Integrate Power BI into automated workflows, think automated testing, deployments, and pull requests.
• Code-First Development: Edit models, reports, measures, visual definitions using JSON, versionable and mergeable.
• Advancing Analytics described it as a “code-first development approach” that elevates BI development to modern software engineering standards.

How to Enable & Use Developer Mode

• Enable Preview Feature: Go to File → Options → Preview Features, then check Power BI Project (.pbip)

• Save as PBIP: Use Save As → Power BI Project (.pbip) to generate folder structure with .Dataset and .Report folders, plus .gitignore

• Edit with VS Code: Open the project folder in VS Code: Set up Git repository, stage changes, commit updates
• Integrate with Git & CI/CD: Push to Azure DevOps or GitHub: Collaborate using branches, pull requests, and reviews

Unlocking Advanced Capabilities

• Semantic Model Scripting – edit the .bim directly for granular control
• Visual Definitions as JSON – tweak report pages and visuals in code
• TMDL Script changes

Considerations & Current Limitations

• Developer Mode remains in preview, not yet GA: some file formats are still evolving.
• External edits require restarting Desktop to reflect changes
• Sensitivity labels and large data binary files (e.g., .abf) are handled via .gitignore, limiting some use.

Summary

Developer Mode represents a major step in Power BI’s evolution. By enabling:

• Source control integration,
• Code-based editing, and
• Continuous deployment pipelines

…it fundamentally shifts how Power BI content is built, maintained, and scaled especially in enterprise environments.

If you're ready to treat Power BI like serious software, Developer Mode is for you.

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